Newms118

Allright, got the full conference registration and the T-shirt. Can't wait!

Do they do day passes?

Ok so this may sound stupid, but its a good idea for the gasket to be wet before tightening? I'm asking bc after I cleaned the overflow and gasket last night, when I was retightening it, there was no way to fully dry the surfaces, so all were still wet. I had a feeling that this may be bad. But its actually better?

Ok, anyone seeing this "you'll break a bulkhead before you crack the bottom of the tank," what are your thoughts? Is the bottom piece of glass that strong? I've read numerous times not to do use a pair of channel locks to tighten the bulkhead.

Thanks for pointing that out flowerseller, wasn't thinking about putting the bulkhead in the non traditional way. The gasket goes with flange side is much more specific. As far as retightening the bulkhead, that just makes me nervous. At the least, I could untighten and then retighten so that I know how much more I can twist the nut without it going too far. Just don't want to hear a crunch from the glass...

So do the tickets with the early bird pricing go quick? Just wondering if I should get this now or can wait a bit.

Probably depends on the coral. If its a leather, I had luck using a razor to cut at the bottom very gently to separate it.

I hand tighten, and then when its harder to turn, I do another 1/4 turn. I don't use a wrench for fear of breaking the glass or deforming the gasket. I just think when I bumped the drain it may have wiggled the bulkhead a bit to let it leak. But its stopped leaking so I believe If I re-seat it I should be good to go.

Yep, gasket on the wet side (not the side with the threads). I have some silicone that I never used. When i take the gasket out I'll put it with some of the silicone and see if that helps it. Such a mess to have to clean out the overflow to work back there. How often do people re-seat their bulk head due to leaks? Is this rare or something that should be expected from time to time?

Just be sure that the fish you get look pretty healthy. I got some fish (2 clowns) from there that went through Quantum's quarantine treatment, but when I got them back to my tank, I lost one in 3 days and the other a week later. Both due to gill flukes (I treated to late) that had to have come from that store since these were my first two fish. I've had success with King of Corals for healthy fish.

So where are you getting the fish?

Beat me to it

I've read that you're not supposed to put live rock into a QT bc it will absorb the medication. When I set mine up, I just used PVC elbows for the fish to hide. I usually replaced about 3 gallons every 2 to 3 days. I checked ammonia daily and really didn't have issues. The ammonia badge is great to use though. After about a month of the tank running (I ended up having them in QT for 2 months), the tank cycled and the QT care was easy. Water changes were done more so to lower the nitrate level than any other issue. And yes some say that its not possible for the nitrate level to climb high enough to cause an issue, but the fish (1 clown, 2 yellow-tail blue damsels, and one royal gramma) were visibly distressed and responded much better when the nitrate levels dropped. From what I've read, if you are going to treat, no carbon since that will just pull it out. I used an hang over the back filter stuffed with filter floss to just collect the particulate matter. The trick was making sure the fish ate ALL of the food added, and if any is missed, just scoop out with the net so that it doesn't add to the build up of ammonia. For medication, I'd get Prazipro (for internal parasites) and some form of copper (I used Coppersafe but many use Cupramine) for ich and gill flukes. If you use Coppersafe, the only copper test that will work is the API which tests for total copper. If you get cupramine, than the salifert copper test will work. Of course testing for copper is required because of how toxic it is. You may already know all this or have a lot of experience but I figured I'd just add some details since I just went though this QT business over the summer. And for lights, I didn't really pay much attention to that. the fish were kept in the kitchen (on the Island) so if they wanted somewhere dark to go they had the PVC elbows, one for each fish so no fighting.

I have my tank overflow plumbed Herbie style, and haven't seen any issues (tank was filled back in February of this year) until today. I was putting a powerhead in my sump and potentially touched the drain pipe somehow. I didn't notice any type of leak until I actually turned on the powerhead. At first I saw the drops coming from the junction between the bulkhead and the PVC, but when I dried the pipe I could see it was actually coming from the bulkhead. I turned off all my pumps and the leaking stop. I dried everything again making sure to not bump the drain pipe and turned my pumps back on. So far no more leaking. I haven't tightened anything but am wondering if the best course of action would be to drain the overflow, clean the glass, reapply the gasket, and tighten the bulkhead again. What do you guys think? Just clean and reapply gasket, or buy a new gasket altogether?

Well my QT has been up for so long its been through the cycle, no ammonia or nitrites detectable, just nitrate that slowly builds. I'll try and get some cupramine, really hate to have to go through that again. What makes me doubt anything else is going on is the fact that the other two fish don't seem to show any signs of disease. Perhaps the clownfish is just stupid lol.